A normal user's look into the world of 3D Stereo Technologies

Can’t say I’m surprised by the fact that Sony is getting back into making smaller displays after being gone for a while from that market and of course their return will be with a PlayStation themed 3D monitor. The 24-inch PlayStation 3D Monitor (CECH-ZED1) is expected to be released sometime in the Autumn this year with a price of $499.99 USD with a pair of 3D glasses bundled and a separate pair of active shutter glasses for it will cost you $69.99 extra (if you live in USA, probably the same amount but in Euro for Europe). The monitor is a Full HD 3D active shutter glasses based solution intended to bring more affordable options for PS3 gamers willing to play in 3D mode as well, but not ready to go for a big and more expensive 3D HDTV. The PlayStation 3D Monitor is going to be using HDMI 1.4 (or 1.4a more likely), but aside from support for the frame packaging method, it will also support Side by Side and Top/Bottom (Above/Below) input methods for 3D content, making it more flexible. And thanks to this extra support you may be even able to connect your Xbox 360 console to the 3D display and play in 3D with the games that support stereoscopic 3D output natively, or use another 3D-capable consumer device. The display may be able to work with PC in 3D mode as well, but due to the limitations of the HDMI standard you will not be able to play in 1080p 3D mode with 60Hz per eye. The new active shutter 3D glasses CECH-ZEG1 are going to be rechargeable over USB, weight about 45 grams, and offer about 30 hours of gameplay on a single charge.

More interesting with this 3D display and the new 3D active glasses is the fact that you will be able to take advantage of the screen sharing technology that was patented by Sony a while ago and that I’ve mentioned here on the blog. This means that in specific games supporting multi-player mode you would be able to play with another person simultaneously without having to resort to split screen anymore, each of the players will be able to see a Full HD image and will not be seeing what the other player is doing. This of course would require both players to wear the active shutter glasses, as in this mode instead of showing you 3D image (different views for the left and right eye), the glasses are separating the image shown to the different players and you will see the same 3D image in both eyes. To take advantage of this additional mode however it seems that the game needs to have support for it built in and not all multi-player games will work out of the box with it, so maybe it will be supported on new titles that are yet yo become available. And I’m not yet sure if this first implementation will also feature separate audio for both players, but since Sony does not mention such feature at all, it is more likely that we are not going to see that implemented as a feature in this product.

It is interesting to note that the LCD panel will be a VA type and not TN as currently all of the active 3D LCD solutions on the market rely on the cheaper TN panels due to their faster response time. And using VA type of LCD panel with good enough response time would mean better color reproduction and wider viewing angles. Sony did not mention anything regarding the brightness of the display so far, but if this 3D monitor offers a quality and performance similar to that of the 3D LCD panel the company uses in their VAIO 3D lineup of laptops, then it will be a great 3D product. The only thing that feels a bit weird about this upcoming 3D display from Sony is the design, maybe still not final, but making a monitor look like a big PlayStation just for the sake of saying it is a PlayStation product…